The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that they have been targeted by what they called “a sophisticated cyber-attack”.

According to the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13740591 , officials at the fund didn’t give out many details, but said that the attack occurred earlier this year and had been a “very major breach” of its systems. It is believed that the hack was designed to install software that would have created a “digital insider presence”.

The attack seems to have taken place over several months despite details only just coming out. The New York Times said that IMF staff were first told of the breach on Wednesday via e-mail, but that the Fund had decided not to make the news public at that time.

The IMF holds many pieces of sensitive and private economic data about various countries and according to the BBC, the attack was itself connected to a foreign government, although it is expected to be very hard to trace.

The World Bank decided to cut its network connection with the IMD out of “an abundance of caution” in case the attack carried on over to them.

This is the latest in a line of security breaches for a number of many corporations and companies around the world, including Sony, Codemasters, Epic Games and Lockheed Martin.